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Monday, November 5, 2012

Why everyone should love Ditto

How can you not love me?

Hi everyone!

Today’s article will be very unorthodox article for me, because I’ll be
concentrating on one card and one card only. The card is Ditto from Boundaries
Crossed. What was the reason, why I chose Ditto? You know that I’ve made
articles of single cards like Mewtwo EX in the past, but Ditto is nowhere as
good as Mewtwo EX – or is it? I don’t think these two cards can even be
compared, because they have so different functions in their decks.

However, the reason why I chose Ditto for this article was simple – it’s one of
the most controversial cards of the new set and has caused a lot of discussion.
Some players – like myself- have been hyping it, some have been saying that it
just isn’t good enough card to put into a deck and some don’t really know what
to think about it. No matter, what’s your opinion, I hope I’ll be able to give
you some food for thought about Ditto. Also, for those who are still wondering
what’s with all this discussion about Ditto, I’ll hopefully be able to provide
a throughout guide to how and why correctly play Ditto. I've got SO many questions about Ditto from players all over the world that I believe this entry will answer all the answers I have received and more!

So, here it is. Why YOU should love Ditto.

1) Ditto enables teching

By teching I don’t mean putting a Mewtwo EX into your deck. I mean REAL
teching. The word tech has experienced inflation during the HGSS-on and BW-on
format. The reason for this has been the lack of real techs. Real techs are
cards that

A) Are genuinely surprising

- By surprising I mean cards that your opponent can’t predict. He/she may know
the whole card pool, but genuine techs are cards that he/she will see
nightmares of a week after you played it down on your bench.

B) Make especially the one match-up better

- In the past, general tech cards could be counted as techs, because there were
a lot of options and most of them were surprising. Everyone knew cards like
Jolteon*, but Jason K. was one of the only players that added it to his Worlds
deck. Another card was Dusknoir(DP), which everyone knew, but you never knew if
your opponent had it. However, you had to play the games in a Dusknoir-fearing manner.
If you just laid everything on your bench and your opponent happened to play
Dusknoir, your opponent won the game automatically.

However, in the current format general “techs” are too general. You can add
Mewtwo EX to 100% of decks and say that “I play this and this with a tech
Mewtwo EX”. No you don’t. You just added Mewtwo EX to your deck, because it’s
such a broken card. Not to mention that your opponent will be surprised if you
AREN’T playing Mewtwo EX, not the other way around. This pretty much applies to
every single card in the current format. The only small exception is Victini
(Re-flip) that was used very creatively in the U.S. Regionals – props for
anyone who came up with it!

Anyways, back to Ditto. The current format is all about Basic “techs”. You can
tech Tornadus EX, Raikou EX and Mewtwo EX into your Eelektrik deck. Big deal.
Your opponent sees them coming even before you have flipped the opening flip.
However, with Ditto you can SURPRISE your opponent. What was the last time you
were genuinely surprised when playing Pokémon TCG? I think my last real
surprise in a gameplay situation was in the 2010-2011 season.

Thankfully with Ditto you are able to cause real surprises to your opponent and
vice versa. It’s pretty unique moment while playing Pokémon TCG, when you see
your opponent to drop a combo you haven’t even imagined, which wins him/her the
game. The feeling is unrealistic. But just how Ditto enables these kind of
situations in the current metagame? Here are just some cards that Ditto enables
to be used in order to change the course of the game.

Now, at this point you must now that all the effects stay on Ditto when you
play the Basic Pokémon on it. So, if Ditto was played e.g. 2 turns ago, you can
play Duskull on it and Rare Candy it immediately to Dusknoir. Ditto is the only
card in the whole format that is able to avoid the stupidest rule ever created
to Pokémon TCG. That’s why these kind of techs are going to be real surprises
to your opponent. Let’s take a look at a few example situations of these
example techs.

Dusknoir

Imagine yourself playing a Hydreigon mirror-match. You’ve run out of Catchers
and your opponent is looking at your discard pile. He/she sees that all of your
Catchers are prized. There is no way for you to hit to his/her bench unless you
hit 30 with Darkrai EX. Your opponent notices that you’re running very low on
prizes and that is impossible for him to win the game unless he benches Shaymin
EX, Junipers and gets the cards he/she needs from the Juniper. Your opponent
benches Shaymin EX and draw all the cards necessary so he/she Catchers your
Hydreigon and KOs it with his Darkrai EX since it already has 60 damage on it.
Now, you are completely unable to move your energy around since you don’t have
another Hydreigon in play.

Last turn you hit 90 to your opponent’s Darkrai EX, which he/she retreated on
the bench and 30 to the benched Hydreigon. That and the random 30 on another
Hydreigon is all the damage your opponent has on his/her field. You are on a
brink of scooping since you can’t draw prizes from the benched Darkrai EX since
you’ve run out of Catchers. You could use Junk Hunt, but as your opponent has
come down to 1 prize, you don’t have time for that. Then you remember Ditto on
your bench. You quickly search through your discard pile and notice that as you
have played prudently and keeping your secret tech as a SECRET, you have all
that’s needed to end the game. You use Ultra Ball to search for Duskull, play
it on your Ditto, use your Rare Candy and Evolve it immediately into Dusknoir.
Your opponent notices what happened. You can both move all the damage counters
on Shaymin EX and win the game or you can move 150 damage to the benched
Darkrai EX and hit for Night Spear for the win.

It’s also good to notice that Ditto enables in this situation another Hydreigon
to come immediately to play, so even if you wouldn’t have the Dusknoir in this
deck, you could be able to set-up another Hydreigon and heal the damage off the
Darkrai EX. This is only one example of Ditto can be in a real
life-scenario.

Ninetales

Ninetales, just like Dusknoir, makes a Catcherless player smile. It doesn’t
really matter what deck you’re playing, you can still use Ninetales as a tech.
It’s an additional Catcher for any deck. As you have 4 Catchers in your discard
pile, your opponent can lay back a little. Unless you’re playing an Eelektrik
deck, there is no real way for you to KO his /her Pokémon from his/her bench.
Or is there? Ditto raises this question immediately into your opponent’s mind.
What can you possible play in your deck since you have Ditto on your bench. The
answer is pretty simple – ANYHING! Your opponent can in desperation use his
Catcher to Catcher the Ditto. And that’s the optimal solution when Rayquaza EX
is in the active spot OHKOing his/her Pokémon. However, if he/she doesn’t KO
Ditto, it can have horrible consequences on his/her game plan. Ninetales works
in every single deck that uses Ditto since you can evolve Vulpix immediately
into Ninetales and you have the 5th Catcher no one else has.

Garbodor

Garbodor is a very interesting card with Ditto, because it makes every
non-Garbodor deck a potential ability lock deck in just one turn. This will be
very interesting to see especially in the straight-Fighting variants since they
already play high amounts of Tools, so getting a Garbodor in play with a Tool
isn’t even a difficult task. In the mid-/late game this can turn the whole game
around, because your opponent may have used up his Tool Scrapper on your
Eviolites / Exp. Share if he/she even plays any Tool Scrappers! Either way,
getting a Garbodor to play in just one turn will cause most tier1 decks a big
headache if they aren’t prepared for it.

Zoroark

If you have been following my blog regularly, you know that Zoroark was used in
one of our Battle Roads as a tech in a Darkrai EX variant. This was working,
because Ascension Zorua worked as a great starter in Darkness decks. However,
thanks to Ditto, Zoroark can now be played in every single deck. Just imagine
the possibilities with a surprise Zoroark when you’re playing e.g. a Garbodor
variant and you start OHKOing their Eelektriks with their Raikou EX’s attack –
like Garbodor didn’t mess up the game badly already! And all this with a single
Double Colorless Energy.

2) Ditto frustrates your opponent

I already discussed this a little bit when I talked about Ninetales’
potential as the surprise tech. It doesn’t matter what deck you’re playing,
whenever you play Ditto on your bench, it makes your opponent’s imagination run
wild. This is not only important, because it makes them unsecure about your
game plan, but it’s also important since it can literally make them nervous,
which leads to simple misplays.

When your opponent sees the Ditto on your bench, he/she has a few ways to react
to it.

1) Ignore it and wait what it turns into
2) Catcher and KO it and let your main attacker run wild
3) Think through every single prudent card that can Ditto turn into it and
prepare themselves for the worst

As you can see, none of these are really good options. Ditto doesn’t give your
opponent good decisions! It’s that good. This frustration often happens in
real-life situations as well. Ditto can change into anything in just one turn
and attaching energy to Ditto makes it more dangerous than any other Pokémon in
the format, because Ditto is every Pokémon in the format!

Let’s take an example in an Eelektrik deck. You want to Juniper, so you can
draw into e.g. Rayquaza EX. However, you only have 1 Eelektrik in play, so it
will take time for you to energy accelerate the Rayquaza EX until you are able
to hit 180 with it. However, if you have a Ditto on your bench, you’re able to
attach the energy on Ditto in advance, so whenever you draw into Rayquaza EX,
it’s enough that the Ditto has 2 Lighting Energy attached to it and one
Dynamotor + Energy attachment from your hand and you have a OHKO machine Rayquaza
EX at your service.

The same kind of strategy with Ditto can be used in every deck. Attach 1-2
energy to Ditto and let your opponent react while attacking them hard with your
main attacker. As I discussed – Ditto leaves no good options for your opponent.

3) Ditto is the best starter of the format

You see – I’m biased. But hey, it’s a fact that Ditto is the best starter
in the format since Ditto is every Pokémon at the same time. However, with the
same argument one could say that it’s also the worst starter in the format. It
isn’t the worst starter in the format, but there are match-ups where you don’t
want to open with it. How common will these match-ups be in the Cities format -
that remains yet to be seen.

Ditto is a very nice starter, because it has 70 HP. Even though it’s weak to
Fighting, it won’t be OHKOed by Landorus EX unless they have a PlusPower.
However, the most important thing is that Ditto is difficult to OHKO in T1.
Landorus EX won’t be as played as it would be with Ether and it will be even
more uncommon to see decks with Landorus EX AND PlusPower. Not to mention that
these two cards should be in their opening hand at the same time as they go
first and have Landorus EX as the active Pokémon… Possible – yes, but not very
probable.

The great thing about starting with Ditto is not only that it can turn into big
EX attackers like Mewtwo EX and Landorus EX depending on the situations, but
that it helps getting stage1 and 2 Pokémon in play more quickly. If you open
with Ditto and aren’t able to get Deino in T1, you can now just in T2 play
Deino in Ditto and Candy it to Hydreigon. Before Ditto, you had to first play
Deino on bench, wait for a turn (and hope it won’t be Catchered) and THEN
evolve it.

Ditto is very versatile in big basic EX decks that concentrate on hitting with
different attackers. You can open with Ditto, attach an energy to it, Juniper
and then think again with a refreshed hand, what do you want to attack with.
However, it also helps stage decks a lot as discussed previously. More about
how much stage decks really benefit from Ditto next.

4) Ditto makes stage decks better

This is the sum of all the above things mentioned. If you start with Ditto
and your opponent isn’t able to hit you in T1, in T2 you’re able to evolve
Ditto into any stage1 or stage2 Pokémon. This makes stage decks a lot
consistent as discussed previously. Ditto also gives any player a tough choice
when it goes on the bench, should it be targeted or not? It can become into
anything in the next turn, so your other support Pokémons may stay untouched,
because Ditto creates psychological pressure on your opponent.

Also, techs are far more important for stage decks than to basic decks, because
in order for stage2 decks to beat any Basic-focused deck, it needs to have an
upper hand in the match-up. Basic decks are a lot consistent, because they need
fewer resources – that’s a fact. However, with the right techs, the match-up
can become favorable for stage decks. And when it comes to Ditto, it will help
stage decks with all of these things.

I believe that Ditto will be the savior of stage2 decks, because it helps them
the most. Ditto works well in Basic decks too, but it brings the most for stage
decks like Hydreigon and Eelektrik. Who knows, maybe even some other stage
decks can be created thanks to Ditto.

5) Ditto is your deck’s 60th (and 59th) card

There is always a lot of discussion
about the so-called 61st cards of the decks’. These cards are cards
that are in theory good, but you just never find space for them in your deck,
because the card is unnecessary and situational. A good example of this was
e.g. Alph Litograph, it could’ve been extremely good, but it just never saw
play.

Ditto can become your 61st card very quickly. And if you are playing
a pure Basic deck, I won’t say that it’s a bad idea. However, I think you
really should consider Ditto more and give it a chance as your deck’s 60th
card. There are Basic decks that love Ditto so much that they want to play 2 of
them. A good example of this was spread deck of mine, which I build 2 months ago,
which played Registeel EX/Landorus EX/Dusknoir/Mewtwo EX. Ditto was so good in
that deck that I really can’t describe its awesomeness in words. It was so good
that I wanted to play 2 Dittos in that deck.

If you are playing a stage decks, you should make Ditto as your 60th
card of the deck. Find space for at least one Ditto and put into your e.g.
Eelektrik deck. In no time you’ll notice that you’ll win games to it. So many
games that you’ll soon be finding space for second Ditto as you notice just how
good it it! Rememeber, 60th, not 61st.

6) Ditto is pink and cute

I’m not into pink and cute things, but I can’t deny that Ditto is more than
adorable. Just look at it – a pink blob of DNA(?). If that isn’t cute, I don’t
what is. Whenever you draw it into your hand, you feel a warm breeze streaming
through you. It has been scientifically proved that looking at the pictures of
cute puppies is good for your health. I’m pretty sure that looking at a Ditto
card has the same effect even though Ditto is much cuter than puppies.

Conclusion

I just spent almost 3000 words convincing you why YOU should love Ditto. If
you aren’t yet in love with Ditto, thinking that it’s playable is a good start
as well. I’m sure Ditto will grow to you as you give a chance to it. If you
still think that Ditto is completely unplayable and bad, it means that I failed
in this entry, but hopefully you got at least a laugh or a two from this.
However, I’m pretty sure you’re sold on Ditto by now (if you read the whole
entry).

If you still have some questions about Ditto, let me know in the comments
section! Also, I would like to know if these kinds of entries are a good change
every once in a while since my entries are mostly concentrated on the
hyper-competitive side of Pokémon TCG. I must admit that there was some heavy
stuff in here as well, but in the end that’s the purpose of my blog! Anyways,
let me hear from you!

Aerodactyl/Stunfisk already funny deck to play, only deck i actually like a little in this format even tho format is rather bad imo. Probs will add Landorus EX to it, so T1 Aerodactyl would make Ditto ohkoable for Landorus EX. :)

You know, I had a bit of interest in Ditto, but didn't really see much. I mainly saw him as a 70HP Deino or Tynamo with a possibility of suddenly changing form on the next turn.

However, after reading that Dusknoir idea, I suddenly realised why you thought Ditto was so good!I now see just how awesome it can be. Virtually anything can be played down without being Catcher KO'd thanks to Transform's rulings.

Ditto has a common weakness and it isn't uncommon to see someone run PP in their fighting deck.

On another note, if my opponent plays down ditto it will alert me to a possible tech or sneak attack. Most big basic decks run max catcher and people will come REAL accustom to having to kill the ditto sooner or later, and it will just be a free prize.

However, It would be nice way to "bait" someone out of fear into killing it, rather than your highly damaged EX Pokemon or some other necessary engine on field to buy yourself an extra turn to heal and or find an out.

Your article also implies that people will simply "ignore" the ditto, and I assure you that won't happen.

I see potential in Ditto, but it's easily countered by 2 of the formats best attackers, Darkrai and Landorus, because once Ditto has damage on it it Transformation option will be very limited.An Landorus EX for example blocks two of your Dittos with one hit for all basics with 40 Hp or less, what means that the stragegy to use it as a "tank" for you tynas etc. wont work well...This is one of the biggest weaknesses Raticate/Amoongus faces...

One of the disadvantages of ditto is that when ditto is faced with T1 Landorous EX damage and your other basic is dieno you have the issue that using ditto's ability will KO your pokemon so in decks that use lower HP basics, you wouldn't want to use ditto for a surprise because it can get in the way because it is just sitting there with 10 HP left and you can't use it without KOing yourself.

I'm not convinced, mostly for consistency reasons. You've mentioned some of the awesome plays you could make, and I don't argue with these. But you haven't mentioned the fact that to get the Dusknoir out you now need 4 cards instead of 3. And if you play only 1 or 2 Ditto, the chance of starting with it or getting it in your opening hand is not great. I would need to invest my balls into getting Ditto out in addition to the basic I want. Sure, it can act as a buffer, but how much consistency do we sacrifice?

1) If you are using a deck with few non-Ditto Pokemon, then Ditto will help you to avoid mulligans. If you are playing a quad deck (only 4 of something), then there is a 60% you will mulligan (and if you mulligan, there is a 60% change you will mulligan again), but if you add 4 Ditto to the deck, then your mulligan odds drop to around 35%. You don't want to be giving your opponent extra cards to draw.

2) If you only have a limited number of "ideal starters" then you don't want to be starting with something like Roselia, Trubbish, Terrakion, etc. Starting with Ditto greatly increases your odds of being able to attack with your ideal starter on your first turn, because you can use a draw supporter or ball to get the Pokemon you want, and you won't have to retreat or Switch.

Of course, the key question: will the advantages of having Ditto in the deck be outweighed by the loss of the cards you had to remove in order to make room for Ditto? (Will the deck with Ditto ultimately be more consistent than the deck without it?) Only extensive gameplay will tell.

Problem with Ditto is Landorus EX. You hit 60 on it with hammerhead and then you try to evolve it into one of those nice satge 1/2 pokemon. Oh wait you can't. If you play Deino, Duskull, Vulpix, Tynamo, Trubbish, Zorua, Magikarp, Feebas, the mushroom thing, Squirtle etc. It works in theory, but really because it does not remove damage counters it does not work.

Also what on earth would you cut from your deck? A trainer? Less consistent. (ok a tool scrapper or eviolite could be cut) A supporter? Less consistent. An energy? Less consistent (Darkrai decks run off getting t1 discarded energy, keldeo just want a billion energy to attack and eels is just meh in this format) A pokemon? Well then that defeats the point of ditto. People would cut the tech pokemon out which is what ditto is for making ditto into a bulky basic tynamo, deino etc. but I explained that problem in the previous paragraph.

eCKo: Hmm, I would like to believe that you read the whole article, but since you said that implied that the opponent will ignore Ditto, I'm not sure if you did! One of the benefits that comes with Ditto is that your opponent DOESN'T ignore it, as mentioned in the article. Your opponent can always Catcher it( if he/she has a Catcher in their hand), but it's always a decision between two bad options. I think I emphasized it enough in the article, but I guess I didn't!

Tyson: Very good point, but techs always bring inconsistency to decks. Your question was very valid - just how much inconsistency can a deck take? A Darkrai EX decks is already very consistent thanks to Sableye, so e.g. in those decks, I could see Dusknoir be a safe play since you don't have to sacrifice as much consistency as with other decks.

Bruce Long: I believe the number 2 reason you mentioned is one of the biggest advantages with Ditto. It's so frustrating to play Deino down in T2 just in order to realize that it will be OHKOed in your opponent's next turn. As I mentioned in the entry, the stage decks get the most out of Ditto.

There were so comments on Landorus EX that I'll answer to everything at once. When it comes to Landorus EX; I just don't buy it. When it comes to decks with PlusPower and Landorus EX, you need to have them in your opening hand. Starting with Landorus EX and having a PlusPower in your hand, doesn't even happen in 50% of the games. Not to mention that you don't even usually open with Ditto, so Ditto won't be the Pokémon to take the OHKO.

Also, all this talk about Landorus EX, just with what are people playing Landorus EX? Pretty much all the truly competitive decks I see with it are the monotype decks, Garbodor and Garchomp. Also, does your opponent really want to hit 2 times Hammerhead to Ditto just to make you unable to evolve Pokémon. If they do, you can just play one of your big EXs like Mewtwo EX on it and ignore the damage on Ditto.

Ditto is THE theorymonical nightmare. I've done the best to convince you that Ditto is a good play especially in stage decks and while Cities and international Regionals will start soon, we'll know just how much played Ditto and Landorus EX are.

It doesnt need to be two hammerheads on ditto. One will suffice because you will be completely unable to put squirtle/deino/tynamo etc. Unless you waste a precious pot on it(assuming you even run pots)

Darkrai EX/Landorus EX/Terrakion bdif. Works without ether. Just use it (Landorus) in that. A pluspower is not necessary as if you hit ditto for 60 it can't evolvo into anything worth while anymore. If you play Duskull onto a Ditto with 60, Duskull faints.

I know where you're getting at explaining ditto potentials, others may not see it yet, maybe too early in the set etc. But I do. Not from the article unfortunately, but my own understanding. Also, I'm not buying the landurus hype either.

Landorus EX does 60 damage to Ditto T1 (weakness). Put an outrage card - Kyurem ! on that ditto, DCE (or better yet 2 water energy with Ether) & 160 damage back to Landorus (weakness). Now Landorus is pretty much screwed - if switch him out still just a Glaciate away from death (barring Giant Cape or a potion). Max Potion & switch maybe, but catcher can still get him, and if any more damage has been done to Kyurem then he's dead. If manage to get 2 more energies on him T2 to kill the Kyurem, just need a card that can do 20 damage to finish him off and who wouldn't take that trade ? Playing around with a Ditto / Kyurem / Dusknoir deck which is promising so far.

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